Lost
by Supernovea
Summary: After a plane crash, Kuwabara and Hiei find themselves stranded together in the mountains where they must rely on each other to survive. FINALLY COMPLETED!
1. Crash

A/N: okay, this is my first attempt at writing a fic and I would love to get input. I realize that this may be a very sad attempt but please bear with me and try to get through the first chapter… if it stinks, oh well.

Rating/ Warnings: This is rated T for minor language, minor adult themes, and some violence. As for warning, this chapter is just introducing the plot so nothing bad here.

Disclaimer: I do not own YYH or anything affiliated with it.

Lost

It was an average day for the world's spirit detectives…

"I can't believe pacifier breath sent us on a mission after he said we'd be getting a vacation!" Yusuke complained. The four Tentai were on a private plane to get to a mission in Russia where a group of high level demons had been spotted. "Why are we even using a plane?", the disgruntled detective moaned "Can't Boton just make a portal thingy or something?"

Kurama looked up from the book he was reading, "Weren't you paying attention?" Yusuke gave him the are-you-kidding look, which made the youko sigh. "Of course not. Well if you were listening, you would have heard Koenma say that the demons specialize in energy manipulation." That earned him a blank stare. "They can impair or even completely block ki. They made it impossible for anyone but them to create a portal without serious risks. This also means that we have to be especially careful because, given the chance, they could block our ki and make it impossible to attack them or defend ourselves." This answer seemed to satisfy the juvenile delinquent because he shrugged and started to complain about other things.

On the other side of the room, the remaining two Tentai were engaged in a conversation of their own.

"Am not!"

"Yes you are."

"Nah uh!"

"So childish."

"I am NOT!"

"Yes you are."

"I AM NOT JUST A BAKA NIGEN (A/N: did I spell that right?)!"

"Hn. Yes you are."

"WELL THEN YOU'RE JUST A SHRIMPY ANTI-SOCIAL FIRE DEMON!"

Ah yes, the compassionate relationship between teammates. These two had been at it for the entire plane ride, which had been about 4 hours so far, and the plane's other occupants were getting quite annoyed. It had been funny at first but now even the mild tempered kitsune's patience was wearing thin, a vein pulsing in his right temple.

"Well at least I can walk for more than three feet without tripping over the GROUND!"

"YEAH WELL AT LEAST I DON'T SCARE EVERYONE I MEET SO BAD THEY WET THEMSELVES! NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS!"

"You impudent…"

"CHILDREN!"

Both of the quarrelers stopped at Kurama's outburst. "Can't this wait until after the 6 hour plane ride.", he reasoned. "Yeah, I bet you guys don't even remember how it started." Yusuke interjected.

Actually, everyone knew how this started, the same way many had been started before it.

Flashback

The group was walking toward the plane as they were about to leave. Kuwabara had just returned from his trip to Genkai's temple to see Yukina.

"Yukina my sweet was, as ever, glad to see me and we shared many wonderful hours together!", the orange haired human reminisced with hearts in his eyes. "You were only there for a half and hour though.", teased Yusuke. "Yes," Kuwabara replied, "but it felt like an eternity. Just my sweet ice maiden and me, enjoying our time together."

"Why would she be happy to see an oaf such as yourself?", a certain fire yoke questioned "I wouldn't be surprised if she mistook you for and ugly, sick tree."

Kuwabara's face burned a deep red. "You're just saying that 'cause you're jealous that she likes me!", he shot back.

"Just keep telling yourself that oaf, that doesn't make it any more accurate."

"You little pinprick!"

And it began.

End Flashback

Now they sat glaring daggers at each other as the plane sped on.

One hour later, the plane was traveling over the snowing mountains. Inside it was quiet, Kurama was reading (still), Yusuke was trying to balance a pen on his finger, Kuwabara was listening to his walkman, and Hiei was staring out the window. It was nice, calm… BANG! The plane shook violently. "What the hell was that?", Yusuke yelled. BANG! Again, the plane was rattled. The detectives were all glued to the window, trying to glimpse what had shaken the plane. BANG!

All of the sudden, a hole was punched in the top of the plane. Three ugly looking demons jumped into the plane and attacked the Tentai. As they fought, the plane plummeted toward the ground. A fourth, red demon emerged from the cockpit carrying a gun-type weapon. He was thrown down by Hiei as Kuwabara leapt into the cockpit to try to pull the plane up before it crashed into the snow, but the steering and other piloting devices were torn out.

While fighting Hiei, the red demon dropped the gun. They had successfully defeated two of the four intruders and were about to finish it when the red demon's counterpart reached the gun. There was little time to react before he pulled the trigger, gun pointed to Kurama and Yusuke. The gun sent off a series of waves that sent the two Tentai to the ground and tore their side of the plane off to go falling toward the earth. With the cockpit side of the plane side half flying, half falling forward Kuwabara leapt into action. He grabbed the gun from the demon and (of course) accidentally hit the trigger, blasting them all and destroying anything that was still working in the plane so it plunged downward at an ever increasing speed. The last thing he remembered was Hiei shouting "You idiot!". Then, there was only black.

A/N: So, what do you think? Questions, comments, concerns? Please review!

-Supernovae


	2. Beginning the Journey

A/N: Thanks to the people who have read the story/reviewed! The characters might be a little OOC in this chapter, but I tried. On to chapter 2!

Rating/ Warning: The rating is still T for the same reasons as last chapter. No real warnings for this chapter either.

Disclaimer: I still don't own YYH.

_In italics_- thought

**Lost **

Kuwabara woke to the smell of sulfur. Sis must be cooking again. He thought sleepily, still unwilling to open his eyes. He shivered, it was awfully cold, even if Shizuru hadn't turned on the heat. After a minute, he noticed that what he was sleeping on did not fell like his bed. Thinking he fell out of bed, the human forced himself to open his eyes in order to get back under the warm sheets. To his surprise, he did not see his room. Instead he saw twisted metal and burning plane seats. The crash came flooding back to him.

He stood there for some time staring at the destroyed aircraft. It then occurred to him that he was not the only one who should be in the rubble.

"OYE! SHIMP!"

The orange haired boy stumbled through the heaps of burning waste, but found no sign of his pint sized teammate. As the immediate shock of the incident wore off, he began to feel pain from the crash. Over all, the wounds were not bad. The worst were bad bruises and a few gashes. _The seat must have cushioned my fall_. Kuwabara then continued the search for Hiei. He searched through the cockpit, he dug through the seats, he was about to give up, thinking that the fire demon had left him here to die when he saw movement in a pile of junk that he thought used to be a wing.

Kuwabara ran over to the pile and started digging. Sure enough, the small demon lay there. He looked worse off then the human. When he hauled some of the wreckage off him, Hiei struggled to push off the rest. This troubled Kuwabara. _Shrimp shouldn't be having this much trouble with such small pieces. _When he tried to assist, he was pushed away and treated to a glare.

"Fine, don't let me help you." Kuwabara grumbled.

"As if I need help from a weakling such as yourself."

Hiei tried to stand but faltered and had to hang on to a piece of metal. After a minute, he succeeded in balancing himself and turned to the oaf. _He looks barely scratched_. The demon pondered. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. They were at the edge of the crash site, from here he could see large mountains to the north and snow to the south. To the west he saw snow and to the east… snow. _Great. Stuck in the middle of a frozen wasteland… with Kuwabara. Just what I always wanted. (note the sarcasm)_. He finished his inspection by turning back to said human who was looking at him expectantly.

"Well, how do we get out of here?" the youth questioned.

"How do you expect me to know?" the yokai shot back.

"Well, couldn't you just use your Jagan thingy to find out where we the others are? I mean once we find them, we can just get Yusuke to call Koenma on his communicator?"

"Hn."

Hiei took off his bandana, revealing the third eye behind it. He closed his natural eyes and tried to focus on the energies of their separated teammates, but was surprised to find that he couldn't access his implanted appendage at all. He tried to summon fire, as he usually could but found that, that too, was impossible. Frustrated he opened his eyes and growled at Kuwabara.

"Summon your reiken." He ordered.

"Huh? Why?" the confused boy asked

"Just do as I say!" snapped the demon

"Ok, ok. Cool your jets."

Kuwabara tried to access the energy he used for his reiken and found that he couldn't. Flabbergasted, he tried again, and again, and again, each time getting the same result. He was brought back from his fruitless attempts when his comrade addressed him.

"You can't do it, can you."

"Well, no! I can't reach the energy like I usually can." The teen protested.

"Do you remember the weapon that the demons on the flying device had?"

Realization dawned on the nigen. He remembered the gun that the red demon had shot Kurama and Yusuke with and that he had accidentally shot them with.

"It must make it impossible to access our ki. Which would mean… you can't use your Jagan."

"No."

"And you can't make fire?"

"No."

"Crap. We're gonna freeze." ,panic rising in his voice "We're gonna die here on this frozen hunk of dirt and never see our friends and family again." He gasped. "I'm never going to see Yukina ever again!"

"And I'm sure she's better for that." Hiei retorted.

"You don't know anything about Yukina! She loves me and will miss me dearly!" Kuwabara shouted.

"Don't presume you know anything about her or me." Hiei stated coldly as he started to walk away.

The tall Tentai glared daggers at the retreating form before running after him.

"Hey! Wait up, you can't leave me here alone."

"Watch me."

Kuwabara stood in front of the youkai, making him stop.

"Look, I know you hate me but we're not getting out of this unless we work together."

Hiei stared up at the taller boy and crossed his arms, "As "inspirational" as that may sound, I can do just fine without you and if you die, it's your own fault for not fighting hard enough for your life."

Kuwabara surveyed the red-eyed demon in front of him. He was shivering slightly, limping, and looked to be bleeding in more than one place.

"On a normal mission, that might be the truth but now, without your ki, you are as vulnerable as a human would be and ,being that you're smaller and more injured than me, I'm probably the most likely of the two of us to survive. Face it shrimp, you need me. I would also do better if I were not by myself."

Hiei considered what the human had said and inclined his head slightly. Kuwabara seemed satisfied and attempted, once again, to assist the injured demon, but was pushed away.

"I said I would travel with you, I still don't need the assistance of a nigen."

Said nigen sighed and shrugged, "I give up, you wanna go without help fine. So, where are we going?"

"Towards the mountains. When Koenma realizes our flying device went down, he will sent out people to search, we can make a signal at the top where it would be most easily seen."

Kuwabara nodded and together, the odd pair began to make their may towards the looming peaks of the northern mountains.

A/N: So… what do you think of chapter 2? As good as the last one? Better? Worse? Please review and I will get the next chapter up ASAP!

-Supernovae


	3. Shelters and Ice

A/N: Hey people! Once again, thanks to readers and reviewers. I know my chapters haven't been that long so far but I'm hoping to update frequently enough to make up for that and eventually get in a longer one. Now for chapter three!

Rating/ Warnings: Still T for the same reasons though we really haven't come across them yet, I suppose I'm just being safe. As for warnings, this chapter has nothing some description of injuries (which isn't really bad but I want to be safe).

Disclaimer: Don't own YYH or anything else except this story (and I don't even know if that qualifies as "own" per say).

_In Italics_- thought

Lost 

Cold and snowy. This was the only way to describe the two Tentai's trek so far. They had been walking northerly for about 3 hours now and were soaked from the thighs down (a bit higher in Hiei's case) by the mounds of snow. In fact all they had come into contact with so far was snow, as they had not yet reached the base of the mountain. Through this 3-hour trip, the pair had hardly spoken to each other and the silence, coupled with the lack of interesting scenery was wearing on Kuwabara's nerves so he attempted a difficult feat… engaging Hiei in conversation.

"So… shrimp. How you doing?"

This was a fairly stupid question considering the circumstances. While Kuwabara was cold, wet, and sore from three hours of walking through 3-foot high snow drifts, the pint-sized fire demon was doing much worse. The snow that was only thigh high on the human was waist high on him, not to mention that his injuries were worse, on top of that, the usually quite warm (usually warmer than a normal human) fire apparition's body was in shock from the cold as he had on only his normal fighting cloths and his now soaked cloak, where as Kuwabara has on a parka and other warm clothing in preparation for Russia. (A/N: wow… long sentence) So the freezing youkai's response came as no surprise.

"Hn."

"Right… so…how long will it take to get to the top of the mountain?"

"How long do you think it will take?" the disgruntled demon growled.

"Do they have mountains in Makia?"

"Yes."

"What are they like?"

"Mountains."

Giving up on actual conversation, Kuwabara decided to try playing a game.

"Hey, do you wanna play I-Spy?"

"I do not "play"."

"Come on, everyone has fun sometimes." The human pestered

"Not me."

By now, Kuwabara had enough of trying to do the un-doable and looked up at the clear sky.

"I miss Yukina."

This made Hiei pause for a moment. "She's probably glad you're gone. She can get a little peace."

Annoyed the teen retaliated "No she's not. She loves me and misses me dearly. How could she not?"

The fire demon rolled his eyes, "All you do is pester her with your pitiful attempts at romance."

This infuriated the human boy. "I give her attention and affection! I give her my heart, my soul and anything else I could give! I need her! I protect her! How could she not miss me? She needs me!"

Hiei sighed and got a far off look. He replied quietly. "You may need her, but she doesn't need you."

This made Kuwabara blink and stop. He tried to think of something to say back, but could find nothing. So he continued walking in silence. This march continued for some time where the only sound heard was snow crunching beneath their feet and shifting as they moved forward. After a while, the snow became less deep so it fell just below their knees. They continued walking, a bit more easily when Kuwabara stepped down and a crack was heard.

The two froze. The human picked up his foot and looked down. A crack had formed in the ground where he had stepped and it was running along the ground toward the mountain. This crack created many smaller cracks the decorated the ground with an intricate pattern of abstract shapes. They went everywhere, even under the feet of the Tentai.

"Hey…uh shrimp. I think the ground broke."

Hiei gave him a look. "That's not the ground. We must be standing on a frozen lake." The cracks began to widen.

"Crap."

The lake spilt open everywhere the cracks were and the two travelers were stranded on two very small pieces of ice. They both looked wildly around for an escape. Hiei found it in a larger hunk of ice that he and Kuwabara might be able to jump to before they lost their balance on the wobbly pieces they were on at the moment.

"Oaf! Jump to that piece there!"

Kuwabara nodded and leapt to the section of ice. He landed on the edge and flailed his arms trying to get fully on. He fell forward and ended up safely on the ice hunk. Now Hiei prepared to make the leap. Kuwabara was about 2 feet give or take from the hunk and he was about 3 ½ . His jumping ability was also hindered by his injuries. He stepped back, and jumped.

He was almost there… almost. His foot barely touched the ice when he lost his balance and fell backwards into the water. The icy water stung like a thousand daggers, stabbing every inch of his body. Hiei struggled to resurface but he kept finding ice above him. Water flooded his lungs, he coughed to empty them only to find more water. He didn't want to die this way. Hiei finally managed to get a hand above the water, the ice was to slippery to get a good grip. He forced himself towards the surface just as everything started to go black. A hand reached down and grabbed him.

Kuwabara pulled Hiei's limp form from the freezing water and onto the ice and pushed on his stomach to get the water out. Hiei coughed and sputtered then started to breathe again. The orange haired nigen picked him up, not receiving any complaints from the unconscious youkai, and jumped from the ice to the safety of land. _Now what._ He considered his options. He could wait until Hiei woke up _but he could be out for hours_, he could keep going and simply carry the incapacitated demon _but he'll freeze without shelter now that he's all wet and the sun's starting to go down_, so he went with option c: make camp for the night.

_Now… how are you supposed to do that._ Kuwabara thought back to something he'd seen on the discovery channel, (A/N: don't own it) he had been at Kurama's house and the kitsune made him watch this special on survival saying he never knew when it would come in handy. What had that nature guy said… oh yes. Don't try to construct a shelter from nothing, utilize the shelters nature made. (A/N: true advice from the experts) He looked around and the only things he saw, besides the lake, were huge snow drifts. The human boy also remembered that snow was supposed to be a great insulator so he decided to dig a cave in a snow drift for them. First he took off his top layer of clothing (the big parka) and wrapped it around his comrade, who was now shivering violently, so that he wouldn't die of exposure or cold before he was done with the cave.

Two cold hands and a couple hours later, he had a snow cave. Kuwabara carried Hiei into the shelter and tried again to warm him. _This would be much better with a fire but there is nothing to burn._ He held decided that he should take a closer look at the small demon's wounds so he carefully removed the parka, cloak, and thin shirt. He stifled a gasp. The demon had a large, ugly bruise on his chest along with several smaller ones. It looked as if a few ribs were broken and he has several large gashes across his torso that were crying blood, though not as much as when they were new._ And he said he didn't need help._

He took some bandages from his pocket that he always carried with him on mission, just to be safe, and began bandaging thespiky-haired youkai's injuries. Hiei winced slightlyin his unconsiousness but continued to sleep. Kuwabara then rolled up his pant leg and examined the wounds there. his right leg looked to have a hairline fracture _no wonder he was limping_but nothing else bad. Shaking his head, the human finished his work and was determined to help the demon the next day, Finally, he re-wrapped Hiei in the warm cloths and held him close for warmth (A/N: not romantically, pervs) before drifting into a deep slumber.

A/N: Another chapter down. Hooray! How was it? I'm getting very few reviews and want to know if it's because the story stinks or what. So even if you didn't like it, please review and tell me why. If you do like it… say that too. I need imput!

-Supernovea


	4. The Mountain

A/N: I got more reviews! Woo hoo! Thank you very much to all the people who have (and hopefully will continue to) put in their opinions. Chapter 4 is here!

Rating/ Warnings: Still T. Warnings: nothing really, I suppose the situation gets a bit more serious and there is a bit of violence.

Disclaimer: Don't own YYH!

_In Italics_- thought

Lost

When Hiei woke up, he was shocked to find himself, not in a lake as he remembered, but in a snow dug-out with a parka wrapped around him. After further inspection of his situation, he noticed that his wounds from the plane crash had been bandaged. He also noticed that there was no sign of his human traveling partner. He decided to leave the shelter and take a look around. He got up unsteadily and was about to leave when he ran into Kuwabara who was entering the cave.

"You're up, good."

"We should be going." Hiei stated and started to make his way to the exit. Before he could get out, however, Kuwabara stood in front of him.

"Not so fast."

Hiei frowned, confused, "What is the meaning of this?"

"I want to take another look at your injuries before we start for the day."

"I don't need your assistance, ningen. I can take care of my own injuries." He attempted to leave again but was stopped, once more, by the human. Hiei glared at him, but Kuwabara didn't budge.

"Your wounds were pretty bad .You could die if they get infected."

"Why does that concern you? It's not like it's you who would die." Hiei shot back.

"No, but you're my friend. I know we don't always get along but we're still on the same team, and teammates look out for each other." He said calmly but his set jaw betrayed his determination. This caught Hiei off guard as he expected the ningen boy to see his point and give up.

They stood, staring at each other, for several minutes before Hiei gave in.

"Fine."

The two sat down and Kuwabara began unwrapping the bandages. The wounds were still bad, but not bleeding as much. While he was doing this, Hiei contemplated what his counterpart had said. He said that they were friends and should look out for one another. _The oaf just doesn't want to be in the mountains alone._ He told himself and tried to brush it off at that. _Besides, if he knew me better, he wouldn't want to help me._

"Hello, earth to shrimp."

Hiei snapped back to reality. He hn-ed at the orange haired teen and exited the shelter.

They continued their march through the snow and toward the mountain just as they did before, the only difference was that Kuwabara walked in front of his teammate so that the snow wouldn't aggravate his injuries as much. Of course it took several minutes to convince the prideful youkai to let him, but once again, Kuwabara held firm and once he felt the difference, Hiei wasn't so bitter towards the idea either, though he would never admit it.

The closer to the mountain they went, the more the scenery changed. At first the snow became less deep, then they found a few rocks and an occasional tree, and eventually they found themselves in a thin forest near the mountain's beginning. After a few more hours of walking, they finally reached the base of the mountains.

The two Tentai stopped to rest for a moment before beginning to climb the mountain. Kuwabara sat down on log and sized up the mountain in front of him. It was steep, very steep, but not un-climbable as it was not straight up and down. His eyes wondered to his walking companion who was leaning against a tree nearby. Hiei had been having an easier time of it since he started letting Kuwabara help him (and by letting, I mean agreeing only after no less then 16 minutes of persuasion) and the taller Tentai was pretty sure he could make it too.

After a minute's rest, they forged ahead once again. As they continued up the slope, the trees became closer together as the forest thickened and the going got tougher. Although there was hardly any snow on the mountainside, it was very steep and each step became an arduous task. It had also been about 2 days since they had eaten last and they were both becoming weak from hunger. It was also not entirely a good thing that there was little snow there because no snow meant no water and it takes less than a week to die of dehydration.

Hiei's injuries had started bleeding more again because the uphill traveling aggravated them. His limp had been worse ever since he slipped on a tree root and nearly fell back down the mountain. Hiei also seemed to be coming down with something, he coughed often and was constantly shaking. He had also become very pale. Kuwabara suspected that he had gotten it when he was cold from falling in the lake and it took this long to incubate. Both of them tired quickly; Hiei because of his wounds and illness and Kuwabara because he had never done anything remotely like this (unless boy scout camping counts) in his entire life.

It was about midday when they stopped again to rest. This time both of them found somewhere to sit.

"Hey shrimp." Kuwabara panted.

"Hn."

"How far up the mountain do you suppose we are?"

Hiei considered this for a moment, "Maybe a quarter, maybe less."

The exhausted human sighed, "Great."

Hiei was about to add to this but was thrown into a violent coughing. Kuwabara looked at his sick teammate and at the steep mountain. One horrible thought came unbidden to his head: _We're not gonna make it._ He tried and tried to stamp out the notion but it kept coming back to haunt him.

"We should continue now" the ill demon wheezed. "We should get in a few more miles before stopping for the night."

Kuwabara was about to protest when something made him stop. "Shh." He hushed, "Quiet a minute." He scanned the trees for movement. _I was sure I heard something._ But whatever he thought he heard, it was gone now. There was no more sound.

Hiei was looking skeptically at the human, "What?" he questioned.

"Nothing, just thought I heard something." He mumbled, still searching for the source of the noise. "C'mon, let's get out of here. It's giving me the creeps."

Hiei nodded and they continued walking. They had only gone for a few minutes when Kuwabara heard the sound again and this time, saw the leaves in a nearby tree rustle. He put in arm out in front of Hiei to stop the small sanjiyan and put a finger to his lips in the universal sign for quiet. The trees rustled again and Kuwabara could have sworn that he saw something big and brown making it's way through the trees.

Suddenly, a mix of fur, claws, and teeth flung itself out of the trees and at the human. He was shocked as the two forms slammed to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Kuwabara was only aware of a heavy weight landing on his chest then sharp, blinding pain across his arms and torso. He struggled and fought for his life with his adversary, punching and kicking for all he was worth.

Air flooded him as the weight was lifted off his chest and he was no longer being ripped into. When he got his bearings, he forced himself off the ground and saw the reason why he was no longer being assaulted. Hiei was fighting with a huge grizzly bear. And he was losing. The bear was advancing fast, swiping its paws, only to be barely deflected by a stick wielded by the red eyed demon.

Hiei occasionally attempted an attack on the beast only to have his stick swiped easily aside by a powerful paw. He was being pushed toward the edge of a drop on the side of the mountain, stepping back with each failed attack and thin escape. Closer and closer to the edge the two combatants traveled. Hiei's foot finally reached the edge and he looked back for a split second, but it was a split second to long. The bear got in its blow and the demon fell from the cliff, but not before he grabbed the bear's bottom paw, pulling it with him.

Kuwabara stood for a second in shock before coming to his senses and ran to cliff edge to search for his teammate.

"Shrimp? SHRIMP? HIEI?" the teen cried frantically.

"What?"

Kuwabara looked down and saw said demon hanging from a tree root, just under the cliff edge. Relief flooded over the human as he pulled his comrade up from the drop off. Hiei brushed off the snow that had fallen onto him cloak and winced as he moved the wrong way. Kuwabara turned him around and saw the claw marks on the youkai's back.

"You got hurt." He said, stating the obvious.

"You too." The demon pointed out, and it was true. The youth had not escaped being clobbered by a large bear with nothing to show for it. He had claw marks all across his front and a few on his face.

"It's nothing bad." He shrugged, "Just a few scratches."

He took another look at Hiei and down at himself and laughed at the shape they were both in. He didn't know why, but he found it hilarious. He laughed until he fell to the ground laughing so hard. He laughed to long it wasn't really laughing anymore but weeping. He wept at the thought of his injured teammate and himself now injured, and at the distance they still had to travel to get to the top, he bawled at how cold and hungry he was and at how badly he just wanted to go home. He cried harder than he had cried since he could hardly remember when. He took a minute to realize that there was a hand on his shoulder.

He raised tear-filled eyes to the face of his comrade. After a minute, he got control over himself and stood up again.

"Sorry." He sniffed. "Guess I just lost it for a second there."

Hiei shrugged and started to walk uphill again only to be stopped by the ningen's voice, hoarse from crying.

"Why? Why did you save me?"

Hiei looked back over his shoulder, "You helped me, I'll help you." And he continued walking. Kuwabara stared for a moment before following his friend.

A/N: What did you think? As good as the other chapters? Better? Worse? Please review with opinions. Before I end this chapter, I would just like to say a few things: 1st- this is not going to end up a Kuwa/Hiei fic, I know a few people were wondering. 2nd- I will not stop writing just because I don't get enough reviews, I may get discouraged and not update promptly but I will still continue this fic unless everyone hates it because I like it. I still would like to get as many reviews as possible because it allows me to see what others see when they read the story and I can change if my style is off or continue as is if it's good. 3rd- I would like to thank all the people who have put in their opinions, it has helped a lot! Questions, comments, concerns? Feel free to send me a message.


	5. A Heart to Heart

A/N: A big thanks to readers and reviewers! Sorry that this one took a little longer than the others. This chapter is basically about Hiei and Kuwabara getting to know each other better. Well, here it is, chapter 5!

Rating/ Warnings: Rating is still T. As for warnings, this chapter has some adult content, but nothing too bad as usual..

Disclaimer: I don't own YYH.

Lost

The two travelers had been walking for what seemed like days, but had only been about 4 hours when they decided to stop for the night. Of course it took more time still to find a suitable place to make camp. Being as they didn't want to construct a complex enclosure for just one night, they were looking for something that was already shelter-esqu. They had been searching for about an hour and a half when Kuwabara thought he found something.

"Hey, shrimp?"

Hiei hn'd to show that he was listening.

"Why don't we make camp here?"

He was referring to a cave-like structure carved in the mountainside. It was inside and at least a little drier than outside the cave.

Hiei shrugged in response. His disease had progressed rapidly and walking for this long took nearly all the energy out of him. Kuwabara accepted that this answer was the best he was going to get until Hiei had rested for a bit and headed into the cave, Hiei following behind. He took a good look around. It was not really rooming but it was also not so small that they would be too cramped, it had a fair amount of wind protection due to the trees partially hiding it from view, overall it seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.

"I'm gonna get some fire wood since now we actually have fire wood to get… do you think that you could start a fire without your ki? I'm not exactly the best fire-maker in the world.", the human asked sheepishly.

After a curt nod from Hiei, Kuwabara started off to get firewood. He tried to find dry pieces that would light easily and it was proving quite a challenge being as most of the trees were wet with snow. He also was feeling sore from the bear incident earlier that day, although Hiei helped him bandage his gashes they still hurt. He returned to their makeshift camp with an armful of relatively dry twigs to find that Hiei had cleaned the twigs and snow from the cave and was now leaning against the cave wall.

Kuwabara walked in and placed some of the sticks in the center of the cavern and the rest in a pile on the side of the shelter. He then sat on the side of the pile opposite from the sick youkai. He watched in silence as the spiky-haired demon walked over to the pile, arranged the sticks into a wigwam with small, quick burning sticks in the center and larger, slower burning sticks on the outside and stuck one stick in the top, then rubbed the center stick quickly in his hand until it started to smoke. He blew on the smoking embers until they became flame and then returned to his seat across from the human.

The two figures sat in silence while the firelight cast shadows across their faces. This quiet was only broken when the ailing demon was thrown into another violent coughing fit. Kuwabara took this calm in the storm to consider their trails so far, as he did this, he came around to thinking about the red-eyed sanjiyan he was sharing the experience with. A week ago, he would have dreaded spending so much as an hour with the small youkai, but now he had spent nearly three days with him and was finding that there was much more to him than meets the eye. While at first he seems cruel, heartless, and morel less, he had seen the demon walk for hours on end without complaining when he was badly injured and sick, risk his life to save him, and even sort of comfort him and help him when he needed it. He began to think of Hiei Jaganshi as more than a demonic killing machine, but as a person with morals, strength, and maybe even feelings. He found that he wanted to know why Hiei was the way he was, what made him tic. So after he let him rest, he once again attempted civilized conversation with the anti-social youkai.

"Hey shrimp?"

Hiei looked up as a sign that the human had his attention.

"What's your family like?"

This question seemed to catch the small demon off guard because he blinked and gave Kuwabara a why-the hell-do-you-want-to-know look. After a second or two of hesitation, he gave his solemn answer.

"Don't have any."

Now this caught Kuwabara by surprise.

"What do you mean you don't have any?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, I. Don't. Have. Any."

"Well I mean when you were younger."

Hiei gave a half-hearted shrug, "Never had any."

Kuwabara blinked, "Never?"

Hiei shook his head.

"What about your mother… and your father?"

Hiei sighed. Why he was even bothering to answer the human's questions puzzled him. He didn't usually give out personal information, any information for that matter, like free pamphlets on street corners. Still he had the strange urge to let the ningen glimpse life from his point of view. He supposed that he had become used to the oaf after being stranded on their personal hunk of nowhere and began to see him in a different light. The human hardly complained, he was useful, and he even found that he was beginning to enjoy his company. The only other person he would even consider giving personal information to was the fox, but for some reason it felt like the right thing to do. He began to think better of the oaf the longer they were stranded, even perhaps, as a friend?

"My mother died when I was very young, I barely knew her and my father…. My father might as well be dead."

Kuwabara began to feel a degree of sympathy for the man before him.

"Man… I'm real sorry."

"Don't be. It's not a big deal."

"Well, who raised you then?"

"I was 'raised' by a clan of bandits."

Kuwabara remembered Kurama saying that bandit clans had specific orders of power, ranks and that it was important that everyone knew their place.

"What rank were you?"

Hiei seemed amused by this as his lips twitched slightly in what might be a shadow of a smile. "Slave."

Kuwabara was shocked, he would have thought that someone as powerful as Hiei would be quite a bit higher up. He voiced this opinion.

"I would have thought that someone as powerful as you would be higher up."

"No one is born powerful. Power is something that must be earned, worked for. It cannot be inherited."

Kuwabara seemed surprised.

Hiei raised an eyebrow, "You thought my fighting ability came easily, did you? Everything I got, I worked for. It takes time and energy to learn how to manipulate your ki, as you have no doubt discovered, and it takes time and energy to learn swordsmanship. To get my Jagan eye I had to get a painful surgery, to get the black dragon I had to conquer and trap it. To build endurance you have to push yourself, and to learn you must do. You do not get strength by having others fight your battles for you. To learn how to pick yourself up you have to fall."

"What kind of work did you do as a slave?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei stared into the fire, "All kinds of work."

"Like?" the human prompted.

"Manual labor was a large part of it. I hauled wood, cleaned up after meals, stacked giant rice balls, ect."

Now it was Kuwabara's turn to raise an eyebrow.

Hiei saw this and gave a hollow laugh, "They seemed to think that giant balls were the best way to store rice and they like the balls stacked in a large pyramid shape. I personally think they did it that way only because they found it amusing to watch slaves struggle with the impossible things then beat them when it wasn't exactly right or if there was any dirt on any of the balls. Then there was also cleaning, waiting on the higher ranking members, and of course amusement."

Kuwabara's eyes widened at this.

"Were you ever… I mean did they ever… you know… violate you?" he asked uncomfortably.

Hiei stared more intensely at the flames. "Yes."

"Did they ever… beat you?"

"All the time." He replied quietly.

"Why didn't you run away?"

Hiei snorted. "Run away to what? Makia is a dangerous place for demon children who often don't have control over their abilities yet. There are demons who would do much worse then what they were."

"Then what?"

Hiei looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you didn't stay there forever. When did you leave? How? Then what happened?"

Hiei was a little startled by the human's interest and decided to continue. "I left there when I was eleven human years old. At this point I probably could have survived if I had run away but I didn't think to. It was bad but I still got enough food not to starve, and a relatively safe place to stay. I was getting much stronger, even more so than the other bandits who began to fear me. They knew I would be holding grudges against them for how they treated me in my early childhood so they decided to kill me. They stopped feeding me and worked me harder than ever. When they felt I would simply die, they threw me out."

"That's cruelty." Kuwabara said quietly.

"That's life." Hiei retorted. "Survival of the fittest."

He was silent for a moment, only staring at the fire, before he began again. "I killed them. I was furious that they would do that to me, leave me to die. So I killed them all. The head of the clan was the first person whose life I ended, but I don't regret it. And if I was in the same place again, if I could go back in time, I would do it again."

Hiei found that it was becoming easier and easier to talk. It was as if the words had been waiting to be heard for a very long time and were just now being voiced. They tumbled from his mouth like water from a dammed river.

"After the initial rage wore off, I did regret it then. I was shocked and horrified that I could do such a thing. I had seen people kill many times before, but there is such a difference between seeing it and doing it yourself."

"I felt lost. I was free of enslavement, but I had nowhere to go and didn't know what to do next. I regained my strength so that I wouldn't be picked off and found somewhere to think. I decided to return to the place of my birth to settle a score. The people there tried to kill me as well. My mother was not supposed to interact with my father and so, as far as they were concerned, I wasn't supposed to have been born."

"When I returned to seek my vengeance they begged for mercy, though they had shown me none. Before I completed this task, I asked to see my mother. I didn't know at this point that she was dead. Her best friend told me, told me how she killed herself after they threw me out, thinking me to be dead as well. She also told me that I had a sibling, a sister, who had left just weeks before to look for me. I forgot my anger and decided to find this sister."

"Like Yukina looking for her brother." Kuwabara interjected.

Hiei smirked, "Yes, I suppose it was like that."

"I searched and searched for her with no avail. I was going through a Makian marketplace trying to find if she had been there, I had little to go off of because I didn't know what she acted like and I could only guess on her appearance based on what I had been told she looked like, when I found a stall that caught my eye. It was a tent shop whose sign read "Mythical Items and Locating Devices" I wondered if I could find something to find my sister with inside. So I entered the tent and was hit with the smell of musty, ancient books, many incense sticks were burning around the tent, and a few more that I could not identify. A demon came in from the back of the tent and smiled welcomingly. 'How can I be of service?' he asked kindly. I told him that I was looking for something that would help me find someone. He took me around the shop and showed my numerous items that could be used to locate someone, but they all required a bit of the person's exact DNA, a memory of the person, or something else that I could not give."

"I asked him if he had something else, something that I needed only a vague description or approximate DNA. He said that he had only one thing that could do that. He brought me into the very back of the tent and showed me something that looked like an eyeball."

"The Jagan" Kuwabara added.

"Correct. He said that this might help me, but that he needed to know more about the situation to know if it could or not. I was young, very naïve, and utterly desperate to find someone who could be my family. So I made probably the biggest mistake of my life, I told him everything. I explained how I was separated from my sister at birth, how my mother was dead and my father was gone. I told him everything about my childhood and my current situation. All the while he smiled understandingly, he was sympathetic, he seemed harmless. He agreed that the Jagan would help me but warned that I would have to have it implanted surgically, that it would be extremely painful, and that I would have to be conscious when it happened. He also warned that no one had ever survived the procedure before. I told him that I would do anything to find my sister, I also asked how much it would cost. I didn't have a lot of money and was hoping that I could work it off for him. He said that we would work that out after the procedure. I complied."

"He did the surgery himself and it was every bit as painful as he warned it would be and more. I was unconscious for three days afterwards, but I survived. The surgeon seemed intrigued by this, and my fast recovery. We then discussed the matter of payment. He said that I wouldn't have to pay any money at all if I swore never to tell my sister that I was her brother. I thought this was a strange payment, but I had no choice but to accept. The deed was done."

For some reason, this seemed to set of bells in Kuwabara's head. He tried and tried to think of what it could be but it just wasn't coming… wait. He looked at Hiei closely. He studied his features and found that they reminded him of someone. Yukina. The light went on.

"Your Yukina's brother."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Hiei nodded slowly.

"Why didn't I see it before? The eye color, the short stature, the way you're all protective of her. It all fits. And you never told her because you swore you wouldn't."

Hiei nodded again, "He would kill her if I told her."

"Then she'll never know… unless. I could tell her, then you technically would not be breaking your word because you wouldn't have told her. I would have."

Hiei shook his head.

"Why not?"

"Originally the only reason I wouldn't tell her was that, but as time went on I found others. The first time I looked at her I knew that I would never tell her. Even if the surgeon was dead. She was so pure, so innocent. Much the way she is now. I knew that I couldn't bear to taint such a thing with the knowledge that we were related. I was a murderer and a thief, she couldn't hurt a fly. Also there is the problem of my enemies. I have many. They would love to find a weak spot, such as a sister, to harm. So I protected her from a distance as I continue to do."

"You should let her know." Hiei looked away.

"She wishes you were her brother you know." Kuwabara continued. "She wouldn't care if it was a danger, she would want to know. She cries because she thinks her brother isn't looking for her."

"She would cry more if she knew it were me."

Kuwabara was unconvinced but decided not to press the matter.

"Continue with the story."

"As I said, I protected her and stopped many people who wanted to hurt her but eventually I slipped up. I was training and didn't notice them until it was to late. I found her, with the help of the Jagan, in an empty warehouse. I found her captor there, it was the surgeon. (A/N: That's why you don't talk to strangers, kids.) He said that he was intrigued by my reaction to the surgery and said he wanted to see more. He said that he was fascinated by people's reaction to pain (A/N: weirdo, I know.) He said that I could leave then, but he would keep Yukina. Or I would stay and she would go free. I could have killed him then, but he had a knife to her throat. I let him take me and stayed there for many years before I escaped."

"I then met the fox and stayed with his clan for several years, before he was killed. I was going to go find my sister again, but I learned that she had been captured by other demons. I was furious. I was tired of playing the game by the rules of something or someone that seemed to have it in for me. My anger fell to Ningenkai. The humans lived in luxury. They had nice houses, enough food, and what killed me the most was that they didn't care. They had all these things and yet they complained. My job is boring, I don't want this food, the weather isn't to my liking. Why did these beings who were so fortunate complain so much. I decided to show them what it was like not to have those things, thus the incident that brought about my meeting of Yusuke and eventually joining the Reikai Tentai."

"I would have destroyed the ningen's realm if it were not for Kurama and Yusuke. I know now that that was a bad idea but when one is angry, many ideas that you wouldn't even consider normally make sense."

"I believe you know the rest."

Kuwabara sat in silence, thinking over what the demon across from him had said. It made him feel for him, and gave him a better understanding of his mysterious teammate.

"I'm sorry to say that my story is not half as interesting as yours. I lived with my parents and sister until my parents died. They were killed in a car crash on the way to my tee-ball game (A/N: at least I think it was a tee-ball game). They promised that they would be there. Their car was hit when they were crossing an intersection. Shizuru says she doesn't blame me, but she does. Now, as you know, I live with her."

Hiei considered him of a moment.

"It wasn't your fault."

Kuwabara blinked at him.

"You weren't driving the car. Nor were you driving the vehicle that hit your parents' car. So it wasn't your fault."

"Thanks."

They sat watching the dying fire for a while longer, both thinking about what the other had said.

"I'm gonna hit the hay. See you in the morning shrim-, I mean Hiei."

Hiei nodded goodnight and they both slept in the company of friends.

A/N: So what did you think? I know it was kinda mushy and a little OOC for Hiei (talking so openly), but I did my best. Just so you know, I used the skeleton of Hiei's story that I knew to create story (I just filled in the gaps) so don't shoot me if its not 100 accurate. I did the same with Kuwabara's but since I didn't know as much about him, his is shorter. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Now I need opinions on one other thing. This story is either going to be 7 or 8 chapters long. I can make it 8 and add one more disaster or I can make it 7 and just have the problems they have already worsen (I would do that in chapter 7 if it is longer or 6 if its shorter). What do you think? Please review or send me a message.


	6. Avalanche

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, I've just been really busy with school and other junk. I will try to update sooner next time but I can't be sure.

Rating/ Warning: Rating is still T for the same reasons. Warning- some disaster-type violence.

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything but the story.

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Lost 

Morning found the two tentai still soundly slumbering (A/N: I love alliterations ). The first to wake was the orange haired human who glanced at his sleeping companion. Hiei seemed paler then he had the night before and his breathing was raspy, but he was alive and didn't seem to be in critical condition. Kuwabara stretched and examined his own injuries. The cuts on his chest and back were sore, and the bruises from the crash were uncomfortable but most seemed to be fading, overall he was ok. Not great, but ok. He stood up carefully and went over to the sleeping demon.

"Hey." He poked him. "Wake up."

Hiei's eyes opened slowly. He sat up and leaned against the cave wall. He looked blearily up at the tall human.

"We should get going soon."

Hiei nodded and struggled to his feet, swaying before steadying himself and starting for the exit. The sun cut through the frozen air like a knife and it took a minute for their eyes to adjust.

"How ya feeling?" the human inquired as they started up the mountain once more.

"I've been better." The small demon mumbled and it was true. His limp had gotten worse and there were numerous bruises and cuts on his thin frame.

They continued on for a while in silence save the occasional coughing fit from the sick youkai. Until they came to a large clearing in the thinning forest of the mountain and decided to stop and rest. Kuwabara looked up and considered the distance they still had to travel. They were about 2/3 of the way up the mountain but the terrain was getting more difficult. There were more ledges and places where they had to climb, and where the trees were getting thinner, the snow was getting higher again. It would be a hard trail, but they were almost there. He sighed and stood up.

"We should keep going."

Hiei nodded and stepped away from the tree he had been leaning against. As they walked on, Kuwabara became increasingly aware of another growing problem. Neither of them had eaten since the plane had crashed 3 days ago and hunger had long set in.

"Hey, Hiei?"

"Yeah."

"Do you suppose there might be any animals on this mountain besides bears that we could, ya know… eat?" he asked hopefully.

The short swordsman considered this for a minute. "I would assume that since the bear would have to have something to sustain it, there would be some other form of animal on the mountain."

Kuwabara brightened a bit at the thought. "Do you think we could catch one?"

Again, there was silence fore a moment as the youkai thought this over. "You may be able to catch something small, but I would not be much help. If there was something similar to a hare (A/N: a hare is like a rabbit incase you didn't know.) or some other such ground creature, you may be able to capture it."

Kuwabara's heart sunk again. He hadn't seen anything of the sort and if there was such a creature, it would probably be so well camouflaged that there was little chance that he would. Then, as if to prove him wrong, he saw something move in the undergrowth. He halted immediately and became stiff.

"Stop." He whispered.

Hiei raised an eyebrow at the human's antics.

"What?" he questioned.

"Sh! I saw something."

The hungry human moved cautiously toward the place where he had seen the movement. He paused, took one more step and something grey and white darted from the cover of the shrub.

"Get it!" Kuwabara cried and charged off towards the frightened rabbit. He followed it through the trees and out into the snow. He ran up and up, through shelves of rock and boulders into a gorge covered in snow where he cornered it. He eyed it hungrily, advancing slowly. Finally he leapt at the poor creature, which ran through his legs and out of sight.

"GRRR!" he shouted. "I was SO CLOSE!"

CRUNCH! Kuwabara turned slowly around. All his shouting had loosened the snow from the rock walls it had been clinging to. It seemed to fall away at first in sheets, but this was soon replaced by a flood of fast moving snow. He stood for a moment with a deer-in-the-headlights look for a moment before racing in the other direction. As he sprinted from the gorge and back down the mountain he ran into Hiei who had been unable to keep up with the frantic hunt. They both fell to the ground but Kuwabara recovered quickly and pulled the stunned demon to his feet and took of again, dragging Hiei along.

"Kuwabara! Why are we running down the mountain?" the irritated demon questioned.

Kuwabara pointed behind them and Hiei glimpsed the onslaught of frozen water coming their way and consuming everything in its path.

"Oh."

They continued running, but it was clear that the cause was lost. The avalanche was gaining ground and quickly reached the fleeing companions. The surge of white engulfed them and was trying to pull them underneath.

"Try to swim through it!"

"Huh?" the struggling ningen found it hard to believe that one could swim through an avalanche.

"Swim against the snow to keep yourself above it!" (A/N: and as those of you who go skiing probably, or should, know, that is what you're supposed to do.)

Kuwabara nodded and tried to do just that, but it was clear that this was easier said then done. The snow was wet and was packed tight, which made moving at all very difficult. Soon they were both pulled under the snow. Kuwabara broke through again but was quickly devoured once again by the unforgiving frozen bombardment. He struggled to resurface but it was all for naught. He became increasingly tired and sore. He took in a deep breath then was lost to exhaustion.

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A/N: So… how was it? A little short I know, but it was the best I could do. I need input! Please review!


	7. Trapped

A/N: Wow… it's been like what, months since I last updated. It's not that I'd forgotten about the story, it's just that I had a bit of writers block (plus school kind of consumed my life so I didn't have time to get over said block). So I hope this chapter was worth the wait and I'll try to update sooner. Enjoy.

Rating/Warning: Still T, same reasons. Warning- perilous situations (but if you have a problem with that you probably haven't read this far so…) and some language. On another note, not everything in this chapter is completely believable if you look to far into it (like, if this were real, both Kuwabara and Hiei would be dead and I didn't want that to happen in this chapter so I pretended it would be possible for them to be ok) I did try to make it as believable as possible but some parts aren't really, so please just take it for the fictional story that it is and **don't** look to far into it, thanks.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but this story… still.

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Lost

Darkness. Darkness was the first thing Kuwabara was aware of when he came to. The second was cold, and the third was that he had absolutely no idea where he was or how he got there. The youth tried to shake his head to clear it, only to find that it was surrounded on all sides by snow. He gradually became aware of a dull throbbing ache all over his body.

Slowly it started coming back. Chasing the rabbit, yelling, running, the avalanche.

_Shit. I am so DEAD!_

Adrenaline started pumping through his veins as he realized that he might be several feet underneath hard packed snow with no way of digging himself out or even knowing which way to dig. He also wasn't sure how badly he had been injured in the avalanche.

_Don't panic._

Kuwabara tried to get control of his panic. He didn't know how long he had been under all that snow or how much oxygen he had left. He had to think fast.

First, he had to figure out which way was up. He remembered hearing somewhere that if you're in an avalanche and end up under many feet of snow and need to find up, you should spit and see which way the spit goes. (A/N: another tip for skier ppl )

_A lot a good that's gonna do me. I couldn't **see** the spit. _(A/N: seriously! I've always wondered about that)

The red head searched his memory for another option but found none. So he decided to try the spit thing anyway. He used his head to form a small hollow around his nose and mouth. Then, he worked up as much saliva as he could with his dry mouth and spat... only to get a wad of spit back on his face.

_Ok. I must be lying on my back facing up._

Next, he had to figure out how to dig himself out. He tried to move his left arm toward his face. No luck, the snow was packed tight, so he tried moving his arm in circles to wear the snow away. At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but then, he felt the snow give. It wasn't a lot and there was still much more snow between him and the outside air, but it gave him hope that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't so dead after all.

He continued to move his arm until it had a hollow around it, then he moved the other one in the same way, the left leg, then the right. As his limbs slowly freed themselves, the throbbing pain got steadily worse until it became sharp in some areas. Kuwabara began to worry more and more about broken bones. He also felt increasingly claustrophobic, he felt snow touching him from all angles, it was on his face, around his limbs, and pressing on his torso from both sides. He felt as if he was in his tomb and the feeling was stifling him. It took every ounce of self control he had to keep himself from a full fledged panic attack.

Eventually, he had enough space around his arms to start digging upward. The going was slow and more snow kept falling in after he dug it out. Terror took hold of him.

He dug frantically, losing himself to panic. He clawed and scrapped and threw the snow but it kept coming. Snow was falling back into his mouth and nose hollow. It got into his mouth and eyes and nose and he knew he must be suffocating. Kuwabara shot his arm up in a last ditch effort to push the snow away… and the tips of his fingers felt cold air.

He froze. He wiggled his fingers and felt wind. His other arm thrust out in the same direction and also found air.

_I'm barely three feet under the snow._

Driven by the touch of frigid air above him, Kuwabara reformed the hollow around his mouth and continued digging.

About an hour later, Kuwabara's head finally cleared the snow. He took in several deep gulps of air and stretched out on the ground to rest. After he had regained his composure, he decided he'd better look himself over to see if anything was broken. Luckily, he didn't seem to be mortally injured. Unluckily, one of his legs was broken and so were a few of his ribs. He wasn't concerned about the ribs; it was the leg that worried him. He limped over to a broken tree branch nearby and made a pair of splints for it. He tied them on with a piece of his shirt and examined his work. It wasn't exactly a first rate job and he wouldn't be moving very fast, but at least he could walk for now. He just had to get to help before that became impossible too. He then looked out to see destruction caused by the avalanche.

The avalanche left a path of white down the side of the mountain, uprooting trees and tossing boulders. Nothing in its way remained standing. It was then, while looking at the wreckage, that Kuwabara remembered his pint sized traveling companion. Hiei had been caught in the avalanche too.

Now that Kuwabara's life was no longer in danger, he began to fear for his friend's. He knew that Hiei was more injured than he was when the avalanche hit. Could he have survived it? What if he hit a boulder or a tree? What if he was buried thirty feet under the snow and had suffocated? What if he was suffocating now? All these thoughts ran through the human boy's head in a matter of seconds.

The tall teen began walking as quickly as possible through the rubble trying to find any sign of his lost teammate. He searched for a long time and was losing hope when he found a clue. Hiei's bandana was lying in the snow, caught on a fallen branch. Kuwabara fanned out his search from that spot. Occasionally stopping to dig for a while then, not finding him, continuing on.

Then he saw it, a bit of black that stood out against the white backdrop. He hobbled as fast as he could to the conspicuous color. As he got closer, he saw that it looked like hair. Hiei's hair. When Kuwabara reached it, he began to dig. It **was** Hiei's hair along with the rest of him. In a matter of minutes, the youkai's face was visible. His lips were a deep blue and he wasn't moving. Kuwabara dug faster until he was able to remove the demon in distress (A/N: I love alliterations) from his icy prison.

Hiei didn't look to good. All his old wounds had worsened and were joined by new ones; dark bruises covered his body, he was bloodied up, his right arm was bent the wrong way, and he was barely breathing. The extreme cold was also taking a toll on his body, his feet and hands were frostbitten and Kuwabara suspected hypothermia. The harsh conditions compounded his illness turning his face sickly pale and making him wheeze when he breathed.

Kuwabara took this all in as he examined the injured demon. He doubted that he could wake Hiei up, and even more so doubted that he could walk even if he were awake. He also knew that they couldn't stay there, they had to find shelter soon, the sun was setting. The desperate detective looked up the mountain. The avalanche had carried them down but not far, they were near the peak of the mountain but there was no way he could carry both himself and Hiei there.

Kuwabara looked longingly at the peak and sighed, _We have to find shelter._

He tried to pick up Hiei but his broken leg gave out and he fell to the ground with a gasp of pain. Looking around, the human youth spotted a large leafy branch that had been brought down by an avalanche. He dragged it over to where Hiei lay and placed him on top, then drug the makeshift sled and demon up the mountain in search of shelter. (A/N: if you've even seen Balto it's like that)

He wandered in search of shelter for an hour, unwilling to make a snow cave after the avalanche incident. It was almost dark when he came upon a cave. He drug Hiei on the sled inside and huddled as far away from the opening as possible. His leg was killing him and he doubted he could carry Hiei again the next day.

_I have to make a signal for rescuers. But are we high enough? Is anyone looking for us?_

He fell into an uneasy sleep with these questions in his head. He would make the signal tomorrow and then they would have to wait.

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A/N: Ok, so was it any good? I rushed it a little because I wanted to get it done while I had time so it might be a little sloppy. Is there anything I should do differently for the next chapter? I need input! Please review!


	8. Saved

A/N: We're nearing the end of this story ppl! This is the last chapter where they are lost in the mountains but I might make an epilogue if it's wanted (or I might even if it's not wanted if I really feel like it). This is kind of a short chapter because I really can't create many more new problems or they'll never solve them. Sorry. Thanks to all the ppl who read and reviewed so far (and haven't given up on the story even though I haven't written in months), I am eternally grateful. Here's chapter 8 of Lost! Enjoy!

Rating/Warning: Still T. No real warnings for this chapter.

Disclaimer: YYH is still not owned by me.

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Lost

Morning found our two Tentai still caught in a troubled slumber, the wind whistling outside their shallow cave made the only sound. The morning sky was clear above the tundra but the sun relinquished none of its warmth to the hard, frozen landscape on which it shone.

Eventually, Kuwabara blearily opened his eyes and joined the world of the conscious. He immediately wished he hadn't. His wounds ached more than ever, the harsh cold intensifying the agony more than numbing it and his stomach growled and tightened from lack of food. More than that, being awake meant he had to contemplate the situation before him and eventually (he winced mentally) find a solution. The only problem with this is that he didn't want to think about their current situation and he had absolutely no idea _whatsoever_ as to how he was supposed to do anything to fix it.

The previous night he had been all for making a smoky signal fire I hopes that a rescue team might find him and his injured companion, but after some thinking he had concluded that there was very little chance they would be found even if he managed to get a signal fire going. The whole point in going to the top of the mountain was so that they could be seen, but even if they were visible on _that_ mountain there was an entire mountain _range_ to be searched. They weren't even on the very top of the mountain anyway!

In fact, the rescue team might have been over that particular mountain already and left, assuming that they weren't there because there was no signal fire. Did they know they had no ki? If not, they would have expected them to make it up the mountain faster and wouldn't have waited there. They might have given up the search thinking them to be dead!

The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed that he or Hiei would ever be rescued.

That was another thing, Hiei. Kuwabara looked over at the injured demon beside him. This endeavor had not been kind to the youkai, throughout the adventure he was in a plane crash, he fell in a frozen lake, was mauled by a bear, and caught in an avalanche (A/N: Poor Hiei, I'm not very nice to him am I…) and Kuwabara didn't think he could take much more. He had to get medical help soon or he would die.

Minutes turned to hours and the entire morning was spent with Hiei sleeping uneasily and Kuwabara caught in indecision. Eventually, he decided that the thing to do was to build a signal fire and pray to god they were found.

_What else can_ _we do?_ He thought wearily.

Gathering enough dry wood to make a decent sized fire took hours and drained most of his strength. By the time he was ready to start building the fire, night was beginning to fall and he was panting with exhaustion. He decided to check on his injured companion before setting about the task before him.

He entered the shelter to find the demon lying in the same position he was when Kuwabara had set out to collect wood several hours before. The constant shivering that had plagued him since the start of their journey, however, had subsided to feeble trembling. At first the youth took this as a sign of recovering health until he realized that the youkai's body was simply too weak to continue with the continuous movement. His breathing was shallower then ever. He wouldn't last the night. Taking one last look at his dying friend, Kuwabara mounted the task of fire building with renewed vigor.

Making a fire proved more difficult than it sounded. The wind and the cold stung Kuwabara's eyes and face and put out any feeble flame he managed to create. Eventually, after much toiling the fire was made and darkness had fallen. Kuwabara surveyed his work with and exhausted pride and reentered the shelter to warm himself. _Now, we wait._

And wait he did, into the late hours of the night occasionally leaving the cave to stoke the fire or scan the skies for signs of a rescue. After hours of waiting he began to lose hope, and sunk into a deep despair. _They're not coming. Nobody's coming and Hiei and me are gonna die up here._ Then, just as he began to lose himself to sleep, he heard something.

He shot up and strained to hear.He waited, not daring to hope only to find it was a trick of the wind or his desperate mind… but then he heard it again. Voices. And they were drawing closer.

"Hey! Let's check in here!"

Kuwabara's heart jumped. "OVER HERE! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

He ran outside and almost into a very familiar face. Yusuke Urameshi was standing in the entrance to the cave. He looked surprised at first, then his face broke into his trademark grin and he just about tackled his teammate.

"Kurama! KURAMA! I FOUND THEM!" he called over his shoulder then turned his attention back to the person in front of him and his face grew concerned as he surveyed him "You're a wreck!"

Over the snow drift appeared a long haired red-head hastening over to where they were standing. A look of relief flashed across his face as he saw Kuwabara. Kuwabara himself could have laughed for relief. They were saved, which reminded him…

"Hiei's inside, he needs a doctor."

Kurama disappeared from his side to retrieve said demon, a worried expression on his face. After a few minutes, he reemerged holding the injured youkai delicately.

"He'll be alright", he said in response to Kuwabara's troubled expression and Yusuke's shocked one, "We need to get you both back to Reikai, there are healers waiting to help you." and he turned again towards a helicopter that could be seen in the distance.

Collecting himself, Yusuke put an arm around Kuwabara's shoulder and helped him walk to the chopper. Kuwabara was still sore and cold but the weight that he carried for the past few days lifted and he felt better than he had since the crash. They were on their way home.

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A/N: So what did you think? Short, I know, but it was the best I could do. If you think it sucks really bad I could rewrite it. Please review and let me know what you thought and whether or not there should be an epilogue. Thanx!

-Supernovei


	9. Epilogue

A/N: So… I know it has been a long time since I've updated

A/N: So… I know it has been a long time since I've updated... But now I am free from my writer's block and the epilogue is finally here! I'd like to thank those of you loyal readers who stayed with the story even when it wasn't updated for months and anyone who has ever reviewed! Hope you like the last chapter in Lost.

Ratings/Warnings: The rating for this chapter is K because all the adult content is passed.

Disclaimer: Nothing has changed since the last chapter to make me own YYH.

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Lost  


The next morning found two figures in a near empty Reikai room. The smaller of the two was lying in a bed, asleep. The tall human was seated in a chair beside him. The night before had been a hectic one, the four tentai returned to the spirit world to get help for the injured pair. During all this, Kuwabara was relentlessly questioned over every detail of their journey up the mountain. The youth wearily recounted all he could, but his mind kept going to his badly injured traveling companion. It was not until Koemna got enough of the story to be satisfied and Kuwabara had been deemed "healed enough" that he was allowed to see the battered youkai.

Hiei lay motionless except for his quiet breathing. Reikai healers had spent most of the night working on his injuries and he looked much better for it. His bruises were faded and his angry wounds were closed. His broken bones had been, for the most part, mended. He had been placed among heaters to raise his body temperature up to normal and his frostbitten hands had been thawed and wrapped. The only thing that seemed to still be troubling him was exhaustion and the remnants of his sickness.

Despite this, Kuwabara was still concerned for his small friend so he breathed a sigh of relief when Hiei finally opened his eyes.

"Hey shrimp."

Hiei looked around briefly to find the source of the noise. When he saw the human next to him, he nodded.

"How ya feeling?"

Hiei considered this a moment then replied, "Better."

Kuwabara nodded thoughtfully, "You gave us a real scare back there." Hiei said nothing. "Glad your ok."

The small demon took in his friend's appearance for a minute. "You seem to have survived as well." Kuwabara took this as the closest thing he was going to get to 'I was worried about you too' and smiled.

"Yeah, I fared ok. Thanks to you."

Hiei shook his head slowly, "No, I'm still here thanks to you."

The human didn't know what to say, he started to speak anyway but the youkai stopped him. "You may be an ignorant human and a general oaf, but you have my respect."

Kuwabara was about to get all chocked up when Yukina entered the room to check on her patient.

"Hello Kazuma-san, hello Hiei-san, are you feeling any better?" The ice maiden turned her concerned eyes to the fire demon in bed.

Hiei nodded his head respectfully, "Yes."

Yukina smiled sweetly, "How are you feeling Kazuma-san?"

Kuwabara, with hearts in his eyes, replied, "Wonderful Yukina my sweet snow angel, especially now that you're here!"

Yukina blushed and smiled again, "I'm glad. Call if you need anything." Yukina bowed and left the room.

After Yukina left, Kuwabara recovered and looked over at Hiei. The small fire demon looked distant and a bit sad.

"You should really tell her you know."

Hiei snapped out of it. "No. That is not a good idea."

"You'll never know until you try. And besides! You know she's been looking for her brother for so long she'll be happy to find anyone not that she'd just except you because you're anyone but she always talks about how she wishes her brother would be like you and what if you never tell her and she never finds her brother and she thinks he doesn't want her and she'll be without a family forever and and…" The last part the human said rather quickly as he tried to get out his argument. "She'd be happy to know you're her brother."

Hiei shook his head again and sighed, "Perhaps one day I will become someone who she can be proud of. Not today, however."

Now it was Kuwabara's turn to shake his head, "I don't agree. I'd say she'd be proud today."

There was silence for a few minutes while both tentai were lost in their own thoughts. It was Kuwabara who, once again, broke the silence.

"So… what do you think? Could you ever let a human date your sister or maybe someday even… I dunno…" the human reddened, "marry her?"

Hiei took a minute to answer, "Yes. As much as I… you are probably the only person I would trust with her."

Kuwabara grinned widely, "Thanks man!"

Hiei looked up sharply, "but you must promise to take care of her always and if you EVER hurt I will make you wish you had never been born."

Kuwabara shrunk for a moment then puffed his chest out, "You can count on me!"

Hiei closed his eyes and leaned back, "Good. But you're still a baka ningen."

Kuwabara rolled his eyes "Am not."

"Yes you are."

"Am NOT!"

"Yes you are."

"AM NOT!"

As the bickering continued, Yusuke and Kurama walked by the door. Yusuke paused and looked at the two incredulously. "Jeez! You'd think after spending all that time together they'd have moved passed the stupid arguing."

Kurama smiled slightly, "Some things, it seems, will never change."

Yusuke shook his head and kept walking." Kurama's smile widened and he jogged a bit to catch up with the spirit detective.

So there it is, life goes on fairly normally (or what can be considered normally for demon fighting teenagers) with a few minor adjustments until the next big adventure… but that is another story.

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A/N: So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Needs changing? I NEED FEEDBACK!!


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